10-09-2019 Workshop & Council Packet

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RELEVANT LINKS: League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 5/10/2019 Newspaper Publication Page 15 6. Meeting and hearing notices Minn. Stat. § 13D.04. For a partial list of required hearings, see LMC information memo, Meetings of City Councils. Cities are not generally required to publish notice of meetings. A schedule of regular meetings must be kept on file at the city office. Meetings held at other times are considered to be special meetings and require special public notice. There are also certain types of meetings and hearings that have different publication and notice requirements, such as local- improvement hearings and zoning hearings, among others. a. Notice of special meetings Minn. Stat. § 13D.04, subd. 2. The Open Meeting Law generally requires cities to post notice of special meetings, as well as mail or deliver notice to each person who has filed a written request for notice of special meetings. Instead of mailing or delivering notice, a city may publish notice at least three days before the meeting. Minn. Stat. § 13D.04, subd. 2(c). If the city chooses to publish rather than mail the notice, the notice must be published in the city’s official newspaper. If there is no official newspaper, the city can publish the notice in a qualified newspaper of general circulation within the city. Home rule charter cities may have additional publication requirements. These cities should consult their charters for other requirements. b. Taxation notification Minn. Stat. § 275.065, subd. 1(f). Minn. Stat. § 412.191, subd. 3. While there used to be substantial publication requirements associated with the taxation notification process (formerly truth-in-taxation), there are no longer. Currently, time and place of meetings at which a city’s levy and budget are discussed and when the public may be allowed to speak must be included in the meeting minutes. Like any other meeting minutes, these are either published in the city’s official newspaper or sent out on request. c. Board of review meeting Minn. Stat. § 274.01, subd. 1(a). A city clerk must give advanced published and posted notice for the meetings of the board of review. The notice must be given at least 10 days before the meeting. The meeting must be held between April 1 and May 31 of each year. d. Local improvements See LMC information memo, Special Assessment Toolkit, for detailed explanation of the special-assessment procedure. There are specific notices a city must publish if it will be using special assessments to pay for a local improvement.